When He Calls Your Name
by GypsyxBells
Summary: “It’s the strangest… thing… Hazel. The edges are all blurred, and getting darker, but it’s crystal clear. I can’t make sense of it. …Maybe there’s nothing to see…” A short dialogue between Fiver and Hazel, set several years after the events of the book.


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A/N: Ah. So this is my first Watership Down fic. I love the book, and I consider it to have ended perfectly, but I was made to write this as an English assignment and thought I may as well post it here to get some feedback from Watership Down fans. ^^;

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"It's coming, Hazel."

"What is, Fiver? Tell me."

"I can't see it clearly… yet... It's different from the rest. Different from before. The blood in the field…. No, rushing water. Pulses like blood. Pulses… pulses…"

"Fiver?"

"Ah! ….Oh."

"What are you seeing?"

"It's the strangest… thing… Hazel. Clearer now, but I still can't see anything. The edges are all blurred, and getting darker, but it's crystal clear. I can't make sense of it. …Maybe there's nothing to see…"

"I don't understand, Fiver. You say it's different from your other feelings?"

"Different, somehow. It feels familiar. It feels warm. That fear… Oh, Hazel! Like in the heather, Hazel, do you remember? That night all those seasons ago…"

"I remember, Fiver old chum. We were scared half to inli, the lot of us. Once or twice I could have sworn I heard the Black Rabbit calling my name."

"This is like that, Hazel. I can feel it, rushing through me, as if it's blossoming from within me. My fur? My tail? It's making my ears itch."

"You're being funny now, Fiver. I'll scratch your ears for you if they itch."

"This is different though, I can't think why it's different. The floor of the burrow is growing rough beneath us, Hazel, it's turning to stone. Like the cave where El'ahrairah where lay waiting for the Black Rabbit of Inlé, his ears and whiskers cut off and his fur all shorn. Where was Rabscuttle?"

"You're beginning to scare me now, Fiver. I haven't heard that story since Dandelion stopped running. He told it so well; no one's dared try telling it since. Do you know what you're seeing yet?"

"Yes, it's getting clearer, I think. Like Frith rising on the morning fog, burning it all away…. Clearer."

"You feel cold to me Fiver, are you sure you're alright?"

"Cold? But I feel so very warm… Oh. This is something special. Forbidden? Shouldn't see… No rabbit should see… what? What am I seeing?"

"I couldn't tell you, Fiver. I'll go and fetch young Threar for you. He inherited this gift from you, these feelings, premonitions. He'll be able to help better than I."

"No Hazel, stay. We must stay together… Mustn't straggle too widely… The woods are so dark. I can still smell that lendri, with the blood on its lips.

"Alright, Fiver. I'll stay."

"Hazel!"

"Fiver?"

"I think… I see it. I see. This is different, yes. Not the future… it's been coming all along. Since that day by those posts, and the embleer burning white sticks on the ground. The board that smelled of men and hrududil. This feeling… Familiar since that time, but coming all along, for us all… for each and every one…

"What do you mean, Fiver? I'm afraid I can't follow many of these things you tell me."

"It's alright, Hazel. I'm warm still. Frith must be smiling on me; the way of the rabbit is to be always in fear… uncertainty and fear… But I see now Hazel, I know it, all of it. We did a lot in those days, when we traveled. I was terribly frightened through all that time, terrified of this thing that's looming. But now…. Ah. You must be Rabscuttle soon. You must leave; the marli, their crying kits, they call for the chief rabbit."

"What do you mean, Fiver? Wait– oh. Do you hear that? Someone's calling from down the run."

"It's alright, Hazel. I'll be warm enough while you're gone, I'll have the company of El'ahrairah soon.... The stars… The frosted stars like shattered bits of eleer thrown into the sky. The sky always did seem like a nice place to run. Bright eyes… I'm sorry I lost us that bit of cowslip that time at the home warren… Ah, Frithrah…"

"Are you sure you aren't dreaming, Fiver? But I've got to go; I'll be back, after I see what the matter is out there. Will you finish telling me about your feeling when I get back?

…Fiver?"


End file.
